Lisa Scails, executive director of the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut, talks about the organization, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. Behind her is part of an exhibit by New Milford photographer John Kane.

Lisa Scails, executive director of the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut, talks about the organization, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. Behind her is part of an exhibit by New Milford photographer John Kane.

While cities in southern Fairfield County such as Stamford boast booming downtown districts or progress toward a diverse, artist-centric community as in Bridgeport, offerings along Main Street in Danbury and the surrounding area are not as apparent.

But Scails sees an opportunity for the Cultural Alliance to prove Danburys critics wrong with the help of the broader area's artistic community.

"We are the hub for arts, history and culture in the community," Scails said of the alliance. "It's a way to bring people together."

Last Friday's exhibit of photography by New Milford's John Kane was evidence of that, she said. More than 100 people gathered in the Alliance's new space at 287 Main Street to see the works and spend some time on the town.

Using the arts as a seed for economic development downtown is not a new idea.

"My thinking was ... to bolster the economy of downtown Danbury ... focus on improving arts and culture and making downtown Danbury a destination for that," she said.

Enter the economic troubles in 2008, and exit the arts-centric plan, while CityCenter took up fostering educational enterprises downtown.

"The impact of the arts definitely spurred economic growth" in Ridgefield, Gartner said. "There is definitely something that grows out of that."

Along with Ridgefield, Bridgeport has seen the benefit of bringing artists downtown, particularly in its efforts to increase housing downtown.

The Park City committed itself to the creative community about a decade ago, partnering with Artspace of Minneapolis to transform a shuttered downtown department store into five-dozen artist lofts.

"That was the spark that created the housing revolution (downtown)," said Bridgeport City Council President Thomas McCarthy. "Artists have a great ability to build a neighborhood and bring back a neighborhood."

That's all well and good, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said, but without the benefit of federal and state funds that helped that project along, "I certainly can't ask the taxpayers to build artist lofts here in Danbury."

"We certainly are proud of the arts in the city and we certainly are welcoming to those who are artists or teachers," Boughton said, adding "We are certainly not in a position to invest city money in artist lofts."

But Scails and Gartner hope that, even without so dramatic an initiative, artists in the Danbury area could help the Hat City attract more people to the downtown.

"The arts, they serve as a catalyst and they offer a value add in the community," Gartner said.

One difficulty with focusing the arts downtown has been how "spread out" the artists and cultural destinations are in the Danbury area, Scails said.

The challenge will be bringing them out, one of the priorities of the Cultural Alliance. Among the efforts are events like those for First Night planned for New Year's Eve, when dozens of performances and exhibits will take place in the city.

Or an initiative called Just Create, an effort to transform empty storefronts downtown with window treatments or pop-up shops.

"People like to visit and be in places where arts is thriving. It's a tried and tested way of bring people together," Scails said. "It's going to happen, because where there's a will, there's a way."